Unfetter

Luke 13:10-21

 

We find Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath, as a Rabbi one should not be surprised. There are other instances in which the authorities try to trick Jesus by presenting someone to be healed, but not in this case. She happened in and Jesus saw her and had compassion for her and cured her ailment that he described as being bound by Satan. We have an understanding that disease is not caused by someone sinning or their family sinning, but in the first century that was a common belief. (Sadly there are those today that uphold that same notion). In this scene Jesus is making it clear that he has the power to cure and heal her. There is a difference between healing and cure. Jesus will always provide healing, it may not be the miracle cure we desire, but we will be made whole by the Love. Cures take away all the sickness, and as humans we have discovered many cures for ailments that plague us, but there are also cures that are simply miracles. Thus when someone asks for prayers of healing, I always ask also for the miracles, for as you can see that is not beyond Jesus' love.

What I find more interesting in this piece of scripture is the metaphor Jesus uses to demonstrate that the woman should be healed on the Sabbath and the two small parables he states because of this interaction. Jesus reminds everyone that they would not leave their donkey or ox at the manger but would untie them and bring them to water even on the Sabbath. How much more would a daughter of Abraham deserve to not be fettered by Satan? This of course wins the argument hands down and leads Jesus to respond with the two parables that compare the Kingdom of God to small things.

The first is the mustard seed which everyone knew was a small seed and Jesus describes the mustard bush as a tree larger than normal as it would be home to many birds. The second is that of the leaven, the yeast, my favorite in part because I was a baker and pastry chef for years prior to seminary. In those days, yeast was known but it was not visible, as there were no microscopes, but the bakers kept the yeast alive as a sourdough. This makes me think of what we would use today for this parable, and I believe it would be a molecule as we cannot see molecules yet we have an understanding that they exist. Well the woman took the leaven and kneaded it into three measures of flour. Now that is not like three cups, but more like what a bakery would receive as a delivery rather than have as a recipe, making this even more astonishing. Why would Jesus share these parables after healing this woman? I believe there are many answers but one of the simplest is that we too get bound and fettered by emotions such as envy, fear, jealousy, etc., even if we are trying to harvest fruits of the Spirit. The good news is that we only need a small amount of the Spirit to grow the Kingdom of God in each of us.

Reading and studying this scripture I kept being reminded of my first two days at work at the Henion Bakery. I had worked for a few months in a bakery that had a lot of machines, and I was excited to work at this artisan "by-scratch" bakery. The first day I was shown what my responsibilities were and shadowed Dave my wonderful boss, as he demonstrated how the work. Much of the work I understood why and how to do the work, until it came to the second to last thing of the day. (The last thing is always to clean-up). It was to make the apple strudel; I was not intimidated by throwing the apples, sugar, flour, and spices into the bowl without measuring correctly, but by stretching the dough. I had made small strudels using phyllo dough from the grocery store, so I understood creating the many layers of dough with butter between to create the flaky crust around the apples, but I could not understand how he stretched a piece of dough I could fit in the palm of my hand at least 3 feet by 3 feet. It seemed he could go further, but the bench was only so deep. I was frightened. The next day went well until I got to stretch the dough; I could feel my anxiety raising stopping me from even starting. I was fearful of failing. I said to myself, "I have all the physical ability to do this task, I have faith in myself." Well the anxiety still fettered me, I was fearful of failing, not of doing it. I then realized that even if I failed I could learn and my new boss would not fire me. This anxiety of fear had stopped me in the past, but this time that small speck of love I felt, unburdened me from the fear and anxiety. To this day I go back to that moment when that type of anxiety and fear surfaces, reminding me it only takes a small speck of the invisible love to unfetter me. I stretched the small piece of dough very well that day. From a small blob to a great thin sheet that created a dozen or so of large pieces of apple strudel for the next day.

We will be bound by these negative emotions and greater demons, and the Kingdom of God will unbind us from if we allow God's love to grow within us, which only takes knowledge of that love, you do not even have to see it.